The recent thread on gun writers, magazine articles, etc. has me thinking about published writing works and errors, particularly spelling and grammatical errors that occurs.

I am rereading some well known works, but only have later published versions in paperback. Throughout some of these works misspelled words, or other grammar errors appear fairly regular. Most of the misspellings appear to be words missing a letter or two, or a comma is dropped. This seems to make the overall structure of writing fit the format of the book. In short the occasional word does not run outside the structure of the body of the printing, and each side of the writing forms a neat vertical line.

Does anyone know if this is forced by the book, magazine, article publisher for convenience, or is it a true misspelling, or other grammar error? With all of the computer tools, and other electronic formatting available, it would seem that this would have to be deliberate, or is it just another error?

The recent thread on gun writers, magazine articles, etc. has me thinking about published writing works and errors, particularly spelling and grammatical errors that occurs.

I am rereading some well known works, but only have later published versions in paperback. Throughout some of these works misspelled words, or other grammar errors appear fairly regular. Most of the misspellings appear to be words missing a letter or two, or a comma is dropped. This seems to make the overall structure of writing fit the format of the book. In short the occasional word does not run outside the structure of the body of the printing, and each side of the writing forms a neat vertical line.

Does anyone know if this is forced by the book, magazine, article publisher for convenience, or is it a true misspelling, or other grammar error? With all of the computer tools, and other electronic formatting available, it would seem that this would have to be deliberate, or is it just another error?

I read a lot and find gun errors annoying. Recent goofs run across include the Marines using Garland rifles in Korea, a detective using a Takarov pistol, someone leaving a Glock with the safety off, someone loading a Beretta 92 14 shot magazine, someone using a Browning HP with 14 shot magazine, a character in one chapter using a shotgun which somehow turns into a 98k two chapters later etc.

Originally posted by walkinghorse:
The recent thread on gun writers, magazine articles, etc. has me thinking about published writing works and errors, particularly spelling and grammatical errors that occurs.

I am rereading some well known works, but only have later published versions in paperback. Throughout some of these works misspelled words, or other grammar errors appear fairly regular. Most of the misspellings appear to be words missing a letter or two, or a comma is dropped. This seems to make the overall structure of writing fit the format of the book. In short the occasional word does not run outside the structure of the body of the printing, and each side of the writing forms a neat vertical line.

Does anyone know if this is forced by the book, magazine, article publisher for convenience, or is it a true misspelling, or other grammar error? With all of the computer tools, and other electronic formatting available, it would seem that this would have to be deliberate, or is it just another error?

Originally posted by walkinghorse:
The recent thread on gun writers, magazine articles, etc. has me thinking about published writing works and errors, particularly spelling and grammatical errors that occurs.

I am rereading some well known works, but only have later published versions in paperback. Throughout some of these works misspelled words, or other grammar errors appear fairly regular. Most of the misspellings appear to be words missing a letter or two, or a comma is dropped. This seems to make the overall structure of writing fit the format of the book. In short the occasional word does not run outside the structure of the body of the printing, and each side of the writing forms a neat vertical line.

Does anyone know if this is forced by the book, magazine, article publisher for convenience, or is it a true misspelling, or other grammar error? With all of the computer tools, and other electronic formatting available, it would seem that this would have to be deliberate, or is it just another error?

Souldn't that be "errors that occur."?

Yes. Walkinghorse made a boo-boo of the sort that he criticized. I caught that, but was hoping that someone else would mention it first.
But check your own post. It has a misspelled word and a period that doesn't belong, before the second quotation mark. See how easy it is to make errors?

Back to the question...automatic typesetting machines and editing space cause some errors. And we have a generation of printers who never learned to spell. "Justification" of the printed work causes some dropped letters. They want columns of print to be even on both sides.

But arrogant reporters who have to spell a word that they don't know is an issue, as with the jerk who wrote "Garland" for "Garand".

A couple of writers have messed up in books. C.J. Box once had his game warden hero, Joe Pickett, use a Remington M-870 that he didn't have with him! He had left it behind in an earlier chapter and never went back for it. Suzanne Arruda ( www.suzannearruda.com ) just had Jade del Cameron use her knife to cut free her boyfriend, who had been captured by the bad guy. BUT...Jade had left that knife in a leopard's shoulder earlier. After throwing the knife at the leopard! I doubt that she'd have been able to get it to stick into the leopard, which was soon killed by a semi-tame lion in an animal dealer's warehouse. Nonetheless, her book, "The Leopard's Prey" is a good read, as is all of the Jade del Cameron series. I like her character carrying a Winchester in 1920 Kenya, and carrying a knife in her boot. She was raised on a ranch in New Mexico, the daughter of an American and a Spanish noblewoman.

I've talked with Mr. Box, a very nice man who readily admitted that he had lost track of the shotgun, which is the same model that HE hunts with. And I know Mrs. Arruda, who is also very nice, and an excellent writer. Errors like that just happen occasionally, because a book is so long that it gets hard for the author to recall all that has happened. If the writer is not particularly weapons-oriented, it's easy to "lose" a gun or knife, I guess, then have it miraculously appear in a later chapter.

I'd like to stress that these are fine authors, and I find no errors in their work, other than those mentioned. They write good books, well worth seeking out. And both defy the current trend in publishing in having armed characters who are on the right side!

Hint: keep an eye out for Jade del Cameron to change her Winchester M-94 for a more effective model in, "Treasure of the Golden Cheetah", due out in hardcover in September. (Teddy and Kermit Roosevelt would have approved of her new rifle. But it's not in the caliber that you may think it is! I suggested a .275 Rigby, but the author likes the idea of an American girl using a Winchester.)

Back to the question...automatic typesetting machines and editing space cause some errors. And we have a generation of printers who never learned to spell. "Justification" of the printed work causes some dropped letters. They want columns of print to be even on both sides.

Thanks T-Star, that is what I was asking!
I was hoping you might respond, being in the business!

Back to the question...automatic typesetting machines and editing space cause some errors. And we have a generation of printers who never learned to spell. "Justification" of the printed work causes some dropped letters. They want columns of print to be even on both sides.

Thanks T-Star, that is what I was asking!
I was hoping you might respond, being in the business!

Yes. Walkinghorse made a boo-boo of the sort that he criticized. I caught that, but was hoping that someone else would mention it first.
But check your own post. It has a misspelled word and a period that doesn't belong, before the second quotation mark. See how easy it is to make errors?
------------------------------------------------
Darn, just when I thought I caught somebody making a mistake and I stub my toe and fall down in front of everybody. How embarrassing.

Sir, no editor or publisher would introduce spelling or grammatical errors on purpose, and neither QuarkXpress nor Adobe InDesign (common page layout programs) will introduce such errors when justifying columns. Microsoft Word will sometimes introduce errors via auto-correction, but the editors and proofers are supposed to catch those. Old-school typesetting can, too, but I don't know how much of that is still done today. The magazine I work for went to fully digital printing years ago, as did many others.

In short, the errors you see are just that--errors. Frankly, if you're reading some publication and *not* finding errors, you're not watching closely enough.

In short, the errors you see are just that--errors. Frankly, if you're reading some publication and *not* finding errors, you're not watching closely enough.

+1!

Another quirky error you'll see occasionally is the erroneous use of a homophone --- a word that sounds the same as another word with a different meaning. If the unintended word is spelled correctly, most spell checking software doesn't catch the error, and seemingly, most proofreaders, copyeditors, and whatever is the contemporary equivalent of "typesetter" are DQ'd for these positions if they are not functionally illiterate. Examples include to/too/two, raise/raze, peak/pique, &tc. Someone occasionally posts here a poem comprised of homophones, which is quite amusing.

I've spent over thirty years in printing and publishing and I've worked with some of the best copy editors, content editors, proofreaders, and writers in the business using the best composition and page make up equipment available, the best printing facilities, the most skilled operators.

Misspellings happen. Typos happen. Wrong words happen. Bad grammar happens. Images are flopped, printed out of register, or under inked, folds and trims are out of square. The list is endless. Usually the equipment doesn't screw up but if if it does and you're lucky enough to find out how, sometimes you can fix it it in time. But the overriding Murphy's law of publishing first puts errors in front of the eyes of the people most likely to be most annoyed by them, usually the person who paid for the publishing or who represents the publisher. This usually happens after distribution has been fulfilled.

Error remedies are part of any publishing or printing budget. All proofing procedures are designed to put the burden of approval on the publisher: comprehensive design proofs, 1st type proofs, page proofs, imposition proofs, press proofs, bindery proofs, any kind of proof you can require, all require "customer" approval before proceeding to the next step.

No one consistently publishes error free work. If you're seriously aiming to do so, hire the meanest proofreaders you can find, the most experienced editors, and never, ever proofread your own stuff: you didn't see the mistake when you made it and you won't see it if you "proof" it yourself.

<span class="ev_code_BLUE">The ones that really get to me are the ones who cannot discern the differences between the words to too and two and their and there and their proper uses. I blame the internet for a lot of misspelled words and lots of improper grammar. With all their made up words and expressions. They have totally ruined our younger generation. Besides our shcools do not seem to stress the importantance of proper grammar and spelling like they once did. I know this will probably date me but, when we took an exam at school spelling and grammar counted as part of the grade as well as neatness. Makes me wonder what ever happened to these qualities?.</span>

Originally posted by BarbC:
In the olden days when I was a legal secretary, we "proofed" property descriptions by reading them backwards with someone else. When you read forwards, your brain naturally fills in the gaps.

That is a good way. Having a copy holder read while the proofer proofs is tried & true.

As an occasional writer, I find myself making these sorts of errors for a reason that sounds odd. I write what I am thinking, then when I go back over a paragraph I find my brain feeding back what I MEANT to write not what I DID write. This is why it is a good idea to proof read after some time, maybe a day or two, has passed so you are less likely to gloss over the errors you made.

When these errors occur, try not to find full fault with the writer. After all, the editor should be picking it up as well.

I was a reporter for 12 years, from 1985 to 1997.
When I worked on weekly papers, I also put the pages together, using galley for columns and a Compugraphic machine to create headlines.
From personal experience, I agree that typos are common. The best way to eliminate typos is to get someone else to read what you write. It's easy to miss your own typo or mistake.
I'm still a big believer, if time permits, in printing out the rough draft and reading it on paper. You'll spot more errors on paper than you will onscreen.
Some words I call, "Trip Wire Words" because they can get you in major trouble if you omit one letter. Alas, the new version is a word itself and not caught by Spell Check.
Trip-Wire Words include:

Public becomes pubic as in, "The mayor will give a pubic address ..."

Count becomes a very nasty word with the omission of one letter. The daily I worked on made this mistake one day -- one very ugly word repeated in 40,000 issues, distributed over a wide region!

In the 1880s it was reported in a London newspaper that the "Queen passed over the bridge."
Alas, one letter got replaced and the Queen ended up doing a bodily function over the bridge!

When I worked on papers, reporters and ad artists came to me if they had a gun question.
I caught many .9 millimeter, 30 Odd 6, 357 Magi, 410 gauge, 22 caliper, shootgun, Rugger, Smithon Wesson and other mistakes.

I read a lot and find gun errors annoying. Recent goofs run across include the Marines using Garland rifles in Korea, a detective using a Takarov pistol, someone leaving a Glock with the safety off, someone loading a Beretta 92 14 shot magazine, someone using a Browning HP with 14 shot magazine, a character in one chapter using a shotgun which somehow turns into a 98k two chapters later etc.

I had one that was worse: A character's gelding turned into a mare within two paragraphs (or was it a mare into a gelding?)....

Actually, the worst error I ever encountered in a book was this hardcover edition in which one chapter ended in another chapter. You know, reading along, suddenly BANG! the scene shifts, and the rest of the chapter is the ending of a totally different chapter. Ended up buying another copy of that book in paperback, and found nearly an entire chapter had gone missing in the hardcover.